By Shane Rockpit
February and March 2010 saw AC/DC’s first Australian tour since 1991, on the back of their “Black Ice” album, itself their first in 10 years. The band formed in Australia, of course, despite its key original members being born in Scotland, and spent their formative years defining their sound and image in the rough Aussie suburban pubs and clubs of the mid seventies.
The Black Ice tour started in October 2008 and has wound through the United States and Europe, South America & Canada. throughout 2009, performing to about 750,000 punters in Australia’s 11 shows alone – the tickets to which sold out within minutes of going on sale in May 2009.
The tour is trucked around the country by 70 (Yes – SEVENTY - The Stones and U2 use 40 each) semi-trailers, pulling a total of 92 containers. 100 full-time touring crew and 250 locals are needed to assemble and dismantle the elaborate stage and props. Last year the band made around AUD$105 million. The most elaborate drug allowed backstage is a carton of Heinekin beer and a bottle of local red wine after each show – no dwarves carrying trays of coke, or swigging from Jack Daniels bottles for the 2010 AC/DC – Angus himself is a teetotaller who will sit down after the show with a hot cup of tea!
AC/DC’s backstage rider 3 oxygen tanks + masks |
To say anticipation was high by the time the band arrived in the country for their first shows in almost a decade is like saying the ocean is a tiny bit damp, so your intrepid reporters left few stones unturned to explore the appeal of this iconic hard rock band.
On January 31st, 2010 at the 52nd Grammy Awards the band were awarded their very first Grammy, for the song ‘War Machine’ in the “Best Hard Rock Performance” category. It’s interesting that the band has sold several gazillion albums (“Black Ice” has sold close to 7 million copies worldwide already; “Back In Black” is the highest selling rock album of all time [and 2nd highest selling album] with an estimated 49 million sales), and here they are winning a Grammy in the twilight of their careers for a song which – while a very good rocker - doesn’t sit as highly in the AC/DC canon as many other, older classics.
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But then, Rolling Stone magazine absolutely lambasted their first album, saying “the genre has unquestionably hit an all-time low”, and refused to profile them until they finally did a long-overdue about-face in 2008, publishing a long apology and cover story on the band they then called “what may be the world’s most phenomenally successful and grossly underappreciated rock ‘n’ roll band.”
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Under-appreciated by the critics at Rolling Stone Magazine and elsewhere, maybe, but never by their many millions of fans – and critical approval has never mattered to this band: the fans have ALWAYS come first!
To start our search we ventured to Melbourne for the bands late February shows, and chased up a bit of Accadacca history along the way.
You can read Mark’s review of the third of AC/DC's Melbourne concerts here
AC/DC LANE
In 2004, Melbourne’s Corporation Lane was re-christened AC/DC Lane, after lobbying from The Cherry Bar - one of Melbourne's premier late nighht rock hangouts - which has resided in the Lane since 1999. Despite a few objections that the new name would “attract undesirable behaviour” – thankfully Councillors rightly dismissed these claims as "completely spurious".
Shane Rockpit in AC/DC Lane, February 2010 |
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However, AC/DC Lane was not the first street to be named in honour of the band – Madrid’s Calle de AC/DC was christened on March 22, 2000.
When we visited AC/DC Lane we found an array of composite posters of the band's members past and present plastered onto the graffitti strewn walls in commemoration of the band's tour by The Cherry Bar owners. The following day we returned to find some pierced students postering over these works with advertisements for a dance music gig, which was a real shame, but that is the way of urban art! We're lucky to have been able to get some photos of the posters to celebrate the occassion.
Trulie Rockpit, giving it some attitude - AC/DC Lane, February 2010
Billy Walsh, co-owner of The Cherry Bar, said that the laneaway attracts a lot of sightseers, and since the bar serves as a late-night hangout for rockers and rollers, as well as a live venue itself, they get "a lot of different types of people in".
The Cherry Bar was the number one place to be after AC/DC's Melbourne shows, and Billy told us it was "a great time - lots of fun!"
"I thought the shows were absolutely fantastic," said Billy. "I have a mate on the crew and we just had a great time - awesome gig!"
So, have any of the band ever come down to see the laneway and maybe have a drink?
"Well, Alberts [Music] told us Malcolm & Angus had been down there at some point to check it out!"
You can find out more about The Cherry Bar here:
http://melbourne.citysearch.com.au/E/V/MELBO/0090/59/18/
THE AC/DC FAMILY JEWELS EXHIBITION
The Melbourne Art Centre was hosting the AC/DC Family Jewels Exhibition while we were in town, so we paid a couple of visits to see a wealth of amazing memorabilia on display.
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A cornucopia of treasures were on display – many donated by close friends and family of the band. Emigration papers for the Scott family; hand written letters from Bon Scott to his wife and friends; unseen live, backstage and offstage photos and even Angus’s early costumes – including ‘SuperAng’ outfit all feature. |
There is a wealth of hand-written lyrics; videos showing footage of the band at various stages of their career and Bon’s leather jacket, donated by his Mum.
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Down each corridor there are 2 scrapbooks full of newspaper cuttings; panels full of backstage passes spanning the entire length of the band’s career; autographed posters, albums and guitars.
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One of the more surprising axhibits is one of the original cannons from the ‘For Those About To Rock’ tour. |
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I asked the concierge at the Arts Centre how the exhibition had been so far.
"Just wonderful - the rock and roll people may have a bad reputation, but we have had a lovely crowd through here - some people have brought their children along and come back time and time again. Everyone has been so polite and full of thanks for the exhibition being put together and being here - in some ways they're a lot nicer to deal with than the regular 'artsy' crowd we get!"
The entire exhibition is fascinating – and the word is it will be travelling, at the very least, around Australia, so make sure you check it out if you get a chance.
S.L.A.M. RALLY RE-ENACTS AC/DC's
'It's a Long Way To The Top" Video Clip
We got another surprise just before leaving Melbourne - On February 23rd, 2010 an estimated 20,000 fans of live music took to the streets of Melbourne to protest the Victorian state Government’s introduction of laws which threaten the future of live music venues state-wide.
The RocKwiz Orchestra, from the TV rock quiz show RocKwiz, played atop a flat bed truck, re-enacting the famous AC/DC music video for ‘It’s a Long Way To The Top’ as it drove ahead of the throng up Swanston Street.
A cavalcade of Aussie muso’s made an appearance – some talking to the crowd, some singing, some just showing support for the SLAM (Save Live Australian Music) cause by joining in the march. You Am I’s Tim Rogers, Paul Kelly, Spiderbait’s Kram, John “Swannie” Swan and many others joined in the serious fun afoot.
Cover of Melbourne's THE AGE newspaper the day after the SLAM Rally
Another very special participant was piper Kevin Conlon, now 73 and still playing with the Rats Of Tobruk bagpipe ensemble. Conlon was one of the original players in the AC/DC clip, filmed in 1976, and Bon was not only a singer but had played drums in a Pipe Band in his youth.
In an interview with The Age newspaper’s Kylie Northover, Conlon says he wasn’t a fan of the band back in the 70’s.
“I’d never heard of AC/DC until Bon Scott rang me up”, he says. “But it was great fun. We were all miming of course, but it was still fun.”
This re-enactment was proof – not that any is needed - that AC/DC and their work have been completely absorbed into the cultural and social fabric of the nation – and, indeed, the world.
The government made a backflip immediately, promising to relax the new laws on staffing, but SLAM promised to keep the pressure on to make sure the politicians don’t try and shaft rock music yet again.
Bon's adopted home town - Fremantle
Back in Perth for their early March shows, we ventured down to Fremantle to chase down some Bon Scott history.
Bon emigrated from Scotland at the age of 6 with his parents Chick and Isa, brothers Derek & Graeme and sister Valarie, testing the water in the Melbourne suburb of Sunshine for a few years before settling down in Fremantle, where Isa still lives to this day.
It was at school in Sunshine that Ronald, still sporting a thick Scottish accent, was nicknamed "Bonnie Scotland", later shortened to Bon.
On previous tours Isa has been invited to the concerts as a special guest and treated as a VIP by the band, but now 91 and in a nursing home, this time around the band will just pay a special visit to her for a cup of tea to pay their own respects. This human side of the band is another strong reason for their global appeal.
We drove down the family childhood home in Harvest Street, North Fremantle, and past Stirling House (previously the North Fremantle Primary School) and the John Curtin College of Art, which was a high school in Bon’s day, and both of which he attended when he could be bothered before leaving school at age 15, moving to Adelaide to hone his early performing skills with The Valentines and Fraternity.
It was in Adelaide, recovering from a nasty motorcycle accident which occurred after too much to drink and a row with his wife Irene Thornton, that his old Valentines band mate Vince Lovegrove – by this time promoting gigs – organised him to drive a young band around, knowing that this band were thinking of replacing their lead singer.
That band was, of course, AC/DC, and the rest is history, right up til the tragic night of February 19th, 1980 in London when Bon passed away, aged 33, in the back of a car on a freezing cold London night after yet another night of determined drinking.
Bon’s body was returned to Fremantle and cremated, his remains laid to rest in the Fremantle Cemetery – and this was our next stop, on the day of his old band’s first Perth show.
BON SCOTT's GRAVESITE
Bon’s ashes are interned in the North West corner of the cemetery (near the corner of Leach Highway & Carrington St, Palmyra), in an unassuming row of similar sites, under a line of well-tended rose bushes.
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The plaque on his gravesite reads “Ronald (Bon) Scott. Passed away February 19th, 1980 Age 33. Loved son of Isa & Chick. Brother of Derek, Graeme and Valarie. Close to our hearts he will always stay, Loved and remembered every day” |
In September 2005 the National Trust of Australia declared the grave site a “Heritage & cultural icon”, and in July 2006 – marking what would have been Bon’s 60th birthday – the Metropolitan Cemetaries Board completed upgrades to the nearby cemetery entrance. Now an ornate wrought iron gate proudly proclaims the graveyard’s most famous rocking son with Bon’s name on the archway, and the words “Memorial Entrance” and a star emblazoned with a lightning bolt - one of the band’s trademarks – on the gate itself.
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The walkway from this gate to Bon’s final resting place was also relaid at the same time, now sporting a brass lightning bolt and musical note, a star with the name “Bon” all laid in black concrete, and at the head of the laneway, a stone seat donated by his family.
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“In Loving Memory of Bon Scott, Lead singer of the rock group AC/DC”, the plaque on the seat reads.
Bon was – in his own words – “a rocker, roller, right out of controller” and it’s this everyman side to his character which is at the core of his universal appeal. No airs and graces to Bon – he was a man of and for the people.
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We shared a drink with Bon and left a couple of trinkets for his amusement, and paid respect to his father Charles (known as Chick), who is laid to rest nearby.
BON SCOTT's STATUE
From here we headed to the Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour to see the bronze statue of Bon which was erected in October 2008, standing proudly on Mews Road near the Little Creatures brewery.
10,000 fans attended a memorial concert for Bon to raise the $100,000 for this 2.5 meter tall statue, organised by Marcus Ahern and The Angels (aka Angel City in some regions) drummer Graham “Buzz” Bidstrup on 25th February 2007, and featuring The Angels Band, Rose Tattoo, The Party Boys, The Screaming Jets, Dave Warner’s From the Suburbs, The Kill Devil Hills, The Sure Fire Midnights and The Flairz. It was a great gig too on a beautiful sunny summer’s day, with all the artists involved dedicating songs to Bon or performing covers of his many classic works.
The statue, sculpted by local artist Greg James, depicts Bon in denim jeans and sleeveless denim jacket, clutching a microphone and rocking out atop an amp emblazoned with his name and a short history – in his element on stage. What surprises most is that the statue is apparently life-size and if so, Bon may have been larger than life on stage and record, but a mere slip of a man, standing at only 5 foot five inches!
BON's "EPIPHANY" PORTRAIT
Finally, we drove under the Stirling bridge which shades the Left Bank bar to take a quick snap of a portrait of Bon, named “Epiphany”, which was created by art students a few years ago. To see Bon's larrikin face leering out from under the bridge is a surprise, but that cheeky sneer is unmistakably Bon!
A 90 minute tram tour named “The Highway To Hell” tour does the rounds of all these Fremantle sites every Sunday. See www.highwaytohelltour.com for more details.
After some refreshing ales at the local bars, we readied ourselves for the big gig – and what a great night it was.
You can read my review of the first Perth concert here
AC/DC achieved immensely more success after Bon’s untimely passing, and no disrespect to his replacement Brian Johnson, but there can be no doubt Bon drove the band to the cusp of the stratosphere-busting breakthrough they achieved with their landmark “Back In Black” album, and in fact the band were financially struggling right up to the day Bon passed away. ‘It’s a Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock n’ Roll)’, indeed. This song, something of a Bon epitaph, is the one song from before his tenure with the band that Brian Johnson declines to sing, out of respect to his predecessor.
A few of the “Back In Black” album’s tracks had been demoed before Bon’s death, though apparently no lyrics were written or vocals were added, with Bon reverting to his original musical forays and playing drums only on the demo tracks. Nevertheless, a percentage of royalties from this mega-selling album continue to this day to go to Bon’s family, in recognition of his invaluable contribution to the band.
Johnson had previously had a couple of minor hits with his band Geordie, but was happily running his own car detailing and upholstering business and playing some low key near-cabaret gigs with a new band, Geordie II. He’d turned his back on dreams of rock stardom and was surprised as hell to get the call from AC/DC’s management asking him to venture down to London for an audition.
“Back In Black” went on the become the most successful rock album of all time – currently having sold over 49 million copies, and there have been another 9 albums and many concert tours since.
200 million sales around the world, countless tickets to concerts, 15 studio albums - and all by five guys who are now in their 60’s and still rocking it like kids a third of their age.
The appeal to AC/DC is simple – they are honest, they play honest music, rough and raw and rocking, and that touches people in every country, of all ages, all the time. There’s no pretentions or rock star bullshit with AC/DC – what you see is what you get, and that strikes a chord with fans. As Brian Johnson put it “We’re not U2 – we don’t stand there and talk a lot. It’s a bullshit free zone up there.”
AC/DC Fever shall continue to burn for many generations to come – long after Angus lays down his Gibson SG and the boys put their feet up, we will have their records. It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock n’ roll, but AC/DC have made it there and can do no wrong with their millions of fans.
For those about to rock – The Rockpit salutes you!
Shane & Trulie Rockpit with Cheyenne & Herbie
Shane Rockpit
Shane@therockpit.net
March 2010